Letter from the Executive Director for March 2022: Creating Better Rental Housing

In February 2022, our initiatives all moved forward. We started our broadcast communication opposed to local rent control and right of first refusal. We opposed a motion to dismiss our rental assistance public records lawsuit. And we moved forward with new member signups, our partner association re-contracts and more.

Advocates of rent control and right of first refusal sense strong statewide opposition to their schemes. For this reason, all of their bills this session are “local control” proposals. The thought is, “let us set our own housing policy.” This is a flawed strategy.

Rent control has a strong stabilizing effect on anyone lucky enough to have an apartment the day the law is passed. But unfortunately, rent control hurts everyone else forever after. Nothing is more clear than the disparate impact signal, which we detail in this month’s Open Letter to the Joint Committee on Housing.

We’re serious about equal housing opportunity, which is why we opposed the state’s motion to dismiss our rental assistance public records lawsuit. In an affidavit I provided to our legislative affairs counsel, I detailed the discouraging story of how even I have been wrongly “timed out.” If it could happen to me, with all my knowledge and connections, no wonder it happened to 75,000 others.

This story was picked up by Jason Law at Boston25. We had the opportunity to be on TV twice that day. WCVB ABC 5 helped a grieving family get back their security deposit. I did not enjoy pointing out that landlord’s uncaring and unlawful mistakes. But we as an industry should, and will, continue to hold ourselves to a high standard.

We launched our new dues schedule and join page in December. In February, we studied early results and partially revamped this page. Further feedback is always welcome at hello@masslandlords.net.

Our four partner associations at this point are all either signed on or intending to sign on again under the new dues schedule.

I would love to see a future where renter advocacy organizations and MassLandlords collaborate on zoning reform. We have so much work to do – so much housing to create – it really can be discouraging to read the partisan proposals constantly put before the legislature. On top of this, we need to do it all without greenhouse gas emissions. The work before us is daunting. We are working toward a time when housing providers are looked to for solutions instead of blamed as problems.

MassLandlords will keep advocating for you to create better rental housing for all. Please join as a member, become a property rights supporter or increase your level of support.

Sincerely,

Douglas Quattrochi

Executive Director

MassLandlords, Inc.